With such a variety of moods and sounds, "S.T.R.E.E.T. D.A.D." turns out to be the rarest of albums: able to make you think but more interested in making you dance.

Unfortunately, he's traded some of his cutting-edge British mergings (R&B, hip-hop, two-step, rock) for a more crossover-friendly (read: formulaic) approach that doesn't fire on all cylinders.

Even naysayers will have to serve props to Lopez for the considerable growth she reveals as both a performer and tunesmith.

"Machine" is ultimately flawed when the Kahuna boys abandon uptempo techno for atypically hymnal pastures.

Predictable, perhaps, but such aural connections rarely fail as a crowd pleaser.

The group seems incapable of integrating these traits into something new. It's either Morello re-writing his old licks for bash-and-thud Rage-style rawk or Cornell's more straightforward tension/release confessionals.

[It's] quintessential Shania, light as vapor, sweet as sugar, rendered with personality and undeniable charisma.

If Foreigner was still an active, young band, it would sound a lot like Matchbox Twenty.

With its restless spirituality and dense, decidedly un-pop arrangements, Riot Act perhaps most closely resembles that first album (No Code) of the post-Vitalogy years.

By pulling from alt rock's elite past to concoct its own primitive magic, Ikara Colt has come up with a rock solid first album.

The most ambitious and most fully realized album of his career.

A nearly perfect collection.

Touching Down is a fluid set that moves from track to track with little or no delineation. As a result, the album is, at times, redundant.

A treasure trove of musical curios.

They strive to be a classic band, crafting timeless songs that will still be fresh and relevant long after the competition sounds dated and quaint.

"Loud Like Nature" is hard to take seriously, but it shows that those old analog treasures still have a few good songs left in them.

Similar to the artist's Under the Pink in tone and continuity, Scarlet demands repeated spins to fully appreciate its chapters' musical and lyrical complexities.

A must-hear recording rich with pleasantly surprising depth.

With Shaman, Santana delivers an album that will, no doubt, please fans of its globally successful predecessor, while at the same time reel in new ones.

Missteps more than it hits.

But after moving past those first moments of seeming artist/song incongruity, the listener will discover an album full of pleasant surprises and vocals that show Stewart in a most flattering light.

One by One, in all its thunderous angst and desperate expressions of hope, represents a full-on exploration of the Foos '70s influences.

If this disc has a weakness, it's in the somewhat "samey" feel of a couple of the songs, but at just under 40 minutes it's no biggie.

An enchanting introduction to a talented band's equally solid beginnings.

Like many great albums, "Original Pirate Material" wasn't meant to be adored in an instant, so don't let your first impressions fool you. This cat's the real deal.

Like debuts from Zero 7 and the Avalanches, Melody A.M. is well-situated to sit pretty in many critics' annual top 10s come December.

Over the course of 14 cuts, the record gets a tad repetitive, with nary a fiddle or steel break within earshot.

What's left is a tightly wound core of guitar, bass, drums, and vocal harmonies that naïvely captures the spirit and spunk of early rock icons the Kinks and the Beach Boys.